ABSTRACT

Introduction When we think of the United States-Mexico border, particularly between Tijuana and San Diego, a variety of images come to mind. These images, as social representations, are informed by direct experiences of the place, as well as by the mass media. Many things are said about Tijuana-San Diego: that it is the most frequently crossed border in the world; that the biggest drug dealers operate there; that it is a violent, unsafe place; that almost every day a person dies attempting to cross to “the other side,” and that it is a place of opportunities and dollars. Cities on “the Mexican side” are known as places in which drink and entertainment are cheaply and freely available; a paradise for underaged North Americans who can come as they please, doing things they cannot do in their own country; home to donkeys painted as zebras and good live music in bars. Everything is cheaper in these cities; North American insurance covers medical services from cosmetic surgery to cancer treatments and cheap medicines are available without prescriptions. Fugitives hide there; it is a place fraught with “shopping malls,” where technology can be accessed at much better prices than in the rest of Mexico and where locals always carry dollars and pesos, and frequently carry passports and United States visas “just in case.” The border is like a third country because it is a mélange of the United States and Mexico, yet is unlike either. The musical art of Santana, Julieta Venegas, and Nortec originated at the border-a place full of dynamic artists and vibrant cultural projects, reflected

by the city of Tijuana itself, where we have cardboard houses alongside the grand facilities of the Tijuana Cultural Center (CECUT), and where creative artists work with few resources alongside cutting edge artistic projects such as InSITE. The border evokes so many images, as the illustrations throughout this book show.